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Saxo Review

March 10, 2024

Your capital is at risk.

Saxo’s trading platform is highly sophisticated and is used by private, professional and institutional investors. The global trading platform, operated by Saxo Bank, offers a huge range of international shares and funds across 50 global stock exchanges. The biggest downside is the cost, as its charges are significantly higher than its U.K. competitors. Our thoughts are that this is a broker for experienced investors, not a good match for beginners or the faint of heart.

Saxo
4.5/5 Stars Overall
  • Minimum Deposit: £0.0
  • ISA: Yes
  • SIPP: Yes

Saxo pros & cons

thumb_up_off_alt Pros

  • Excellent web and mobile trading app.
  • Offers ISAs and SIPPs.
  • Now offers mutual funds.

thumb_down_off_alt Cons

  • High fees for share and bond transactions.
  • Limited chart features on the mobile app.
  • A steep learning curve for newer investors.

Overall summary

Feature Saxo logoSaxo
Overall Rating 4.5/5 Stars
Charges & Fees 3.5/5 Stars
Investment Choices 5/5 Stars
Mobile App 5/5 Stars
Website 4.5/5 Stars
Ease of Use 3.5/5 Stars
Education 5/5 Stars

Charges and fees

Saxo has three types of accounts:

  • Classic: For those with less than £200,000.
  • Platinum: Amounts above £200,000 (access to lower fees and wider services).
  • VIP: Amounts above £1 million (best fees and event invitations).

A custody fee of 0.15% is charged on Classic accounts, and 0.12% on Platinum accounts, with a minimum monthly fee of €5 (which can be waived if you activate securities lending in your account). Inactivity fees have also been removed in an update from Saxo at the start of 2024, along with reductions in its per-trade commission pricing with lower minimum commissions. Despite these improvements, Saxo remains a more expensive platform for investors with less than £45,000. You’d pay annual management charges of £125 with Saxo (unless you opt in to securities lending), compared to £42 through AJ Bell and £59.88 with Interactive Investor. Some brokers, such as XTB or Trading 212, don’t charge any custody fees at all.

If you hold funds, a further 0.4% is charged on Classic accounts. On £45,000 worth of fund investments, this would bring your total annual management fees to £300 – making Saxo even more costly compared with other brokers.

Saxo is a better value for investors with high-value portfolios as the custody fee drops to 0.09% on VIP accounts. On a £1 million portfolio you’d pay £800 a year in management fees with Saxo, compared to £875 you’d pay with rival AJ Bell and £1,250 with Hargreaves Lansdown to hold funds.

In terms of trading fees, these depend on the account you hold, the issuing country and the type of investment you buy. For Classic account holders trading U.K. securities, Saxo charges a minimum of £3 per share and ETF trade, or 0.10% of the transaction amount (whichever is higher). European stocks range from a minimum of €3 to €10 and U.S. shares incur a minimum of $1 to as much as $25 for OTC Markets Pink Sheets stocks.

It means transaction fees can get steep, and is a different approach to most of the other platforms we review, which typically charge a flat fee. Trading costs for bonds range from 0.2% for Classic account holders to as little as 0.05% for VIP clients, and come with a minimum of €20 per trade, which is again higher than many other platforms.

Saxo recently launched the opportunity to buy mutual funds, offering access to more than 6,000 global funds. Fund trades are free, although you will pay ongoing management fees to the fund manager and Saxo (0.4% for Classic accounts).

Scenario pricing: When calculating annual share dealing costs, trading frequency and account balance are the two most important factors to consider. Assuming a £30,000 portfolio in a traditional, taxable share dealing account, here are four scenarios of how much Saxo would cost based on trade frequency:

  • 5 trades per year = 0.15% (minimum £150)
  • 12 trades per year = 0.15% (minimum £150)
  • 36 trades per year = 0.15% (minimum £150)
  • 120 trades per year = 0.15% (minimum £150)
  • 3 fund trades per year = 0.15% (minimum £150)
Feature Saxo logoSaxo
Minimum Deposit info £0.0
Share Trading: 0-9 Deals/ Month info 0.08% (£3 min)
Share Trading: 10-19 Deals/ Month info 0.08% (£3 min)
Share Trading: 20+ Deals/ Month info 0.08% (£3 min)
Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 info 0.4% p.a. up to £200k; 0.2% p.a. after £200k
Annual Custody Fee: £250K-£500K info 0.2% p.a.
Annual Custody Fee: £500,000 - £1m info 0.2% p.a.
Annual Custody Fee: £1m and over info 0.1% p.a.
Bonds - Corporate - Fee info 0.20%
Bonds - Government (Gilts) - Fee info 0.20%
ETFs - Fee info
Investment Trusts - Fee info £8
Telephone Dealing Fee info £50
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Mobile trading apps

SaxoTraderGO is Saxo’s trading platform. Here you can access stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, forex, CFDs, commodities and forex options. It can be accessed through a mobile app and through a web browser.

Placing trades is quick and simple through the app, and I found it easy to do basic functions such as create and manage my watch list. When selecting a stock, you can see key financial information and can also see similar stocks people are interested in by scrolling to the bottom of the page on the ‘product overview’ tab. I liked the look and feel of the app and was impressed by the new design of the portfolio section, where you can see in detail your historical performance and can see a clear summary of your positions, including your profit and loss.

You can overlay different stocks on the same chart to compare historical performance although you can’t appear to change the layout of a chart through drawing tools nor can you add indicators. This is a disadvantage if you like sophisticated charting tools on the go – something that is offered by rival IG.

Tap for a demo of Saxo's U.K. trading app.

smartphone Top apps

See our picks for best share dealing accounts for beginners, based on our extensive hands-on testing of share trading apps available in the U.K.

Website

The SaxoTraderGO web homepage gives a very good oversight of stock market moves across regions and sectors. You can see the top gainers and losers of different regions, as well as analyst recommendations for stocks.

The web platform is very cleanly laid out. You can filter stocks in many different ways such as by market capitalisation, dividend yield and popularity over the past month – allowing you to see general trader sentiment towards certain stocks.

However, I found it quite difficult to customise a chart. Rather than changing a chart layout through each individual stock, you have to go to platform settings to access the charting tools. There are many ways to customise a chart, as there are 64 indicators and 20 drawing tools.

When selecting a stock, the quote includes a chart, news, general company information, analyst recommendations (provided by TipRanks), and fundamental data. I found the information given to be comprehensive and well laid out.

SaxoTraderGO is certainly one of the most comprehensive investing platforms of all the brokers we tested. There is also SaxoTraderPro, which offers advanced trading features for professional or large-scale traders. It supports six monitors, unlike SaxoTraderGO, which supports two.

Feature Saxo logoSaxo
Web Platform info Yes
iPhone App info Yes
Android App info Yes
Stock Alerts info Yes
Charting - Indicators / Studies info 64
Charting - Drawing Tools info 20
Charting - Notes info Yes
Charting - Display Corporate Events info No
Charting - Stock Overlays info Yes
Charting - Index Overlays info Yes

Investment choices

You have a choice of 23,500 shares on 50 stock exchanges worldwide through Saxo, which is the widest range of stocks of any U.K. broker we tested. It was really impressive to see such a wide range of indices including the Tokyo and Hong Kong stock exchanges, which aren’t offered by most of the U.K. brokers in our review.

Saxo also offers ETFs, investment trusts, bonds and mutual funds, meaning you can achieve wide diversification. Saxo also offers the ability to trade forex, commodities and futures for more experienced traders looking to take higher risk.

Feature Saxo logoSaxo
Share Trading info Yes
CFD Trading info Yes
Funds info Yes
Research - ETFs info Yes
Bonds - Corporate info Yes
Bonds - Government (Gilts) info Yes
Investment Trusts info Yes
Spread Betting info No
Crypto Trading info No
Advisor Services info No

Education

Saxo pulls in news feeds from Dow Jones, giving customers a good oversight of global finance news. There are also daily market feeds and research articles from Saxo’s strategy team. I found the ‘week ahead’ videos a very good summary of the main financial and economic announcements coming up that week.

There is also a daily podcast called Saxo Market Call, which looks at topics such as what falling oil prices mean, and present opportunities to earn income from corporate bonds. If you are interested in financial news and how broader economic news impacts the stock market, then Saxo is a great source of information.

There is also some good video content aimed at beginners, including an introduction to equities and how to choose shares.

Feature Saxo logoSaxo
Education (Share Trading) info No
Education (Funds) info No
Education (Retirement) info No
Client Webinars info Yes
Client Webinars (Archived) info Yes

query_stats What type of trader are you?

Our guides can help you choose the right broker for you and the way you trade: whether you consider yourself an investing beginner, a more experienced active trader, or a mobile-first trading enthusiast.

Final thoughts

Saxo is a very sophisticated trading platform that will appeal to investors with extensive trading experience. You can invest in stocks and assets worldwide, unlike general U.K. investment platforms that typically focus on Europe and North America. However, Saxo is not likely to be suitable for beginner investors or those with a small portfolio, due to the high charges. Investors with a large portfolio should also be mindful of the trading charges, which are a percentage of your trade rather than a flat fee.

About Saxo

Saxo is the U.K. subsidiary of Saxo Bank Group. Established in 1992, Saxo Bank is a Danish investment bank and its technology is used by more than 200 banks around the world. With headquarters in Copenhagen and clients in over 180 countries, Saxo Bank is privately held and processes over $17 billion worth of transactions every day.

Is Saxo Bank trustworthy?

Saxo Bank is regulated in 15 jurisdictions including the U.K. and Singapore, and holds banking licenses in Denmark and Switzerland. As it is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Saxo Bank has to hold segregated accounts to ring-fence clients’ money, and you are protected for up to £85,000 through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Is Saxo a good investment platform?

Saxo is a very good investment platform that gives traders a wide array of information and investment opportunities. However, it is not likely to be suitable for beginners.

Is Saxo good for beginners?

There are better choices among U.K. brokers for beginners. There is no minimum deposit to open an account with Saxo, meaning you can start investing with a small sum. However, the platform can be complicated to operate for new traders and the charges are high. We would not recommend starting your investing experience with Saxo – other platforms such as Freetrade or Trading 212 may be a better fit.

What is the minimum deposit for Saxo?

There is no minimum deposit at Saxo, but to reach Platinum status you need to have invested at least £200,000, and to reach VIP status you need at least £1 million in your Saxo account.

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Methodology

For the UK.StockBrokers.com Annual Review, we assessed, rated, and ranked 17 U.K. share dealing platforms over a 10-week time period. Each broker’s platforms and features were exhaustively tested by hand and graded on 53 different variables. In total, over 25,000 words of research were produced.

We thoroughly tested and compared features of prime interest to everyday investors, including but not limited to:

  • Investment choices, such as whether the broker offers trading of shares, ETFs, funds, bonds, and CFDs; and offers SIPP and ISA accounts.
  • The broker’s charges and fees for investing.
  • Functionality and design of mobile apps and website platform, and a fluid experience moving between app and web.
  • Usability of tools such as charting and watch lists.
  • Market research, such as screening, news and analysis.
  • Educational resources including tutorials, online courses, videos, webinars and articles.

Our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .001% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Our lead researcher and writer, Elizabeth Anderson, has more than a decade’s experience as a financial journalist and market researcher. Elizabeth’s expertise is backed by a team of veteran fellow traders, data auditors, editors and project managers who work to ensure that UK.StockBrokers.com reviews and guides are the most unbiased and complete in the industry. Read more about our team.

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About the Editorial Team

Elizabeth Anderson
Elizabeth Anderson

Elizabeth Anderson, lead writer and researcher, has been a financial journalist for more than a decade. In addition to her work with UK.StockBrokers.com, she has written extensively for major publications including BBC, The Times and Bloomberg. A keen investor herself, she is passionate about helping people understand finance and investing.

Blain Reinkensmeyer
Blain Reinkensmeyer

Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.

Carolyn Kimball
Carolyn Kimball

Carolyn Kimball is managing editor for Reink Media and the lead editor for the StockBrokers.com Annual Review. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.

Steven Hatzakis
Steven Hatzakis

Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.

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